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Tuesday, May 20, 2008

ABC Filters McCain's talk; MSM continue to give Obama a Pass

Yesterday’s McCain response to Obama on Iran

ABC News reported yesterday, online, on Senator McCain’s speech to the National Restaurant Association meeting yesterday morning in Chicago. In particular, what one of their reports highlighted was Senator McCain’s four minute response to some comments made by Senator Obama on Sunday. The McCain response to Obama preceded the thirty minute, or so, prepared comments of McCain [See here].

ABC News omissions from the McCain response.

What is interesting is what ABC News omitted from the McCain response. Since it was online, why not just link to the remainder of McCain’s comments, as any decent blog would do. Further, the way in which the comments were edited would be kind of what you might expect from a second grader. The “editor,” simply omitted the second portion of two discrete lines of argument. The ABC omitted portions are highlighted (bolded) below. Any reporter could have done a better editing job, falling out of bed.

Questions the MSM are not asking Obama on Iran

Substantively, McCain's comments raise significant questions, although not as explicitly as this reporter would have liked: what is it exactly that Obama contemplates using to persuade Iran to back off from their dangerous, destabilizing behavior of arming insurgents in Iraq with tremendously explosive devices, developing a military nuclear capability and promising the extinction of Israel? What will Obama offer Iran or Syria, for that matter, in his summits with those countries’ “leaders.” The Golan Heights to Syria? Lebanon to Syria? And, what dear Lord, does Obama have in mind as a carrot to Iran. He sure isn’t going there with any threats of using sticks. This reporter doesn’t think Wallace or Russert have asked Obama those questions. Shouldn’t they. Or, are Obama’s thoughts on this matter a national secret? Kind of like Nixon’s secret plan to end the Vietnam War. The nation is still waiting for that disclosure. ******************************************* I want to respond briefly to a comment Senator Obama made yesterday about the threat posed to the United States by the government of Iran. Senator Obama claimed that the threat Iran poses to our security is tiny compared to the threat once posed by the former Soviet Union. Obviously, Iran isn't a superpower, doesn't possess the military power the Soviet Union had. But that does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination that the threat posed by Iran is insignificant. On the contrary, right now Iran provides some of the deadliest explosive devices used in Iraq to kill our soldiers. They are the chief sponsor of Shia extremists in Iraq, and terrorist organizations in the Middle East. And their President, who has called Israel a stinking corpse, has repeatedly made clear his government's commitment, commitment to Israel's destruction. Most worrisome, Iran is intent on acquiring nuclear weapons.

[The biggest national security challenge the United States currently faces is keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists. Should Iran acquire nuclear weapons, that danger would become very dire indeed. It might not become a superpower but the threat the government of Iran poses is anything but tiny. Senator Obama has declared and repeatedly reaffirmed his intention to meet the President of Iran without any preconditions, likening it to meetings between former American Presidents and the leaders of the Soviet Union. Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment. Those are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess. An ill conceived meeting between the president of the United States and the president of Iran, and the massive world media coverage it would attract, would increase the prestige of an implacable foe of the United States, and reinforce his confidence that Iran's dedication to acquiring nuclear weapons, supporting terrorists and destroying the State of Israel had succeeded in winning concessions from the most powerful nation on earth. And he is unlikely to abandon the dangerous ambitions that were giving him a prominent role on the World Stage].

This is not to suggest that the United States should not communicate with Iran our concerns about their behavior. Those communications have already occurred at an appropriate level, which the Iranians recently suspended. But a summit meeting with the President of the United States, which is what Senator Obama proposes, is the most prestigious card we have to play in international diplomacy. It is not a card to be played lightly.

[Summit meetings must be much more than personal get acquainted sessions. They must be designed to advance American interests. An unconditional summit meeting with the next American President would confer both international legitimacy on the Iranian President and would strengthen him domestically when he is very unpopular with the American people. It is likely such a meeting would not only fail to persuade him to abandon Iran’s nuclear weapons, it’s support of terrorists and commitment to Israel’s extinction. It could very well convince him those polices are succeeding in strengthening his hold on power and embolden him to continue his very dangerous behavior. The next president ought to understand such basic realities of international relations.]